Revere plant commits to cleaner air

Friday

Sep 23, 2016 at 9:04 PMSep 23, 2016 at 9:04 PM

Staff Reporter

TOWN OF WALLKILL – The air stands to be a bit cleaner in the mid-Hudson these days.

That’s because of a $55 million investment by the Revere Smelting & Refining Corp. that company representatives say reduces metallic particle emissions from its Ballard Road plant to about 25 pounds per year from the federally permissible level of 400 to 500 pounds.

“They were already fully compliant,” said Revere representative Josh Somers of Focus Media. “They elected to make a significant investment for the environment.”

The system went on line at 8 p.m. Wednesday in an 8,000-square foot addition to the company’s plant where about 10 million auto batteries are recycled annually. That installation, which began about two years ago, was preceded by similar ones at the company’s plants in City of Industry, Calif., and Indianapolis, Ind.

The air pollution controls follow an $18 million cleanup of lead and arsenic soil/water pollution at the site that Revere undertook in 2012 under the direction of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. That pollution stemmed from the late 1970s and early 1980s, when lead slag and battery parts were used as fill at the site, according to the DEC.

The new installation involved as many as 300 construction workers to assemble. Passersby might notice something different about the plant. Three stacks – 200-feet, 65-feet and 100-feet-tall – have been replaced by a single one looming 120 feet high.

It’s out of sight, though, where the cleansing processes are at work, fully computerized and needing just one worker per shift to monitor a single screen. The new building houses seven, 60-foot tall units that maximize the removal of particulates.

Exhaust gases from the kiln and furnaces used in the lead smelting process flow through an already existing particulate control system before entering the new equipment. The overall result is a 95 percent reduction in emissions.

The installations at the company’s plants will increase its operating costs but was seen by Michael Buckantz, Revere’s manager of environmental technical support, as a long-term commitment to continuing its U.S. operations.

Likewise, Walkill Supervisor Dan Depew saw Revere sending a message of commitment to his town and Orange County. The plant employs 268 people.

“It’s good for us and it’s good for the environment, too,” Depew said during a tour of the plant on Friday.

jwalsh@th-record.com

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